Prediction of live formation water densities from petroleum reservoirs with pressure-dependent seawater density correlations

Abstract

We studied two density correlations developed for seawater at high pressures as potential models to predict formation water densities from petroleum reservoirs as a function of salinity, pressure, gas content, and temperature. The correlations were tested against experimental densities measured at high pressures for live formation waters sampled under bottomhole conditions from five petroleum reservoirs. As a result, one of these seawater correlations was found to be particularly promising to predict formation water densities for these samples, even out of the pressure range originally reported for such a model.

Keywords

• salinity
• density
• live formation water
• seawater
• reservoir conditions